NORWICH – One area organization is taking its campaign for renewable resources on the road to Eastern Pennsylvania this Saturday for the first “Energy Fair,” a showcase of environmentally safe and community accessible power sources.
Representatives from the Chenango County Farm Bureau have been invited to the fair, located in Lackawaxen, PA, to present their progress in developing alternative energy projects locally.
“This will be a great, hands on event that shows people there are other ways of being more efficient with our energy,” said Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers.
Lackawaxen is located roughly 75 miles Southeast of Binghamton.
Headed to the expo with Vickers will be his wife Rainy and bureau Vice President and Plymouth resident Giff Foster, who co-operates a bio-diesel production plant, Creative Energy Solutions, in Bainbridge.
This weekend Foster will be displaying his pick-up truck, which runs 100 percent on waste vegetable oil from deep fryers. He says using waste oil has increased his mileage from 17 to 30 miles per gallon. That’s not all it’s improved, either.
“It (fryer oil) smells better than regular diesel,” Foster says. “More like French fries.”
According to the Upper Delaware Preservation Coaliton, which organized the event, the fair will be featuring a host of wind, water, bio-diesel and other renewable resource technologies. Vickers will be displaying the farm bureau’s plans for developing a “Community Anearobic Digester” – a generator that would heat and power a facility comparible in size to the Chenango County Correctional Facility on cow manure. The project won a $50,000 matching grant from the state to conduct further research. No site or formal plans have been offered.
Vickers says the exposure should be beneficial.
“We will have an opportunity to address 500 to 800 interested parties and legislators on what we are doing in New York with the 25 x ‘25 program,” he said.
The “25 x ‘25” program is a nationwide farm bureau initiative to have agriculture produce 25 percent of the country’s energy by 2025.
Aside from using farm waste products to produce energy, in Chenango County, Vickers and Foster are looking to start a fuel crop cooperative, where local farmers would ideally grow non-food intensive plants like rape seed and willow that would be turned into fuel – a chunk of which would go back to the farmer to run their operations with.
The group will be displaying a mini-model depicting the “Field to Food Tank” process.
“People are fascinated when they can visually see the finished product and realize that everything can be utilized with no waste,” Foster said, explaining that bio-diesel waste can be turned into a multitude of things, including soap.
The Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition is also involved in the fight against New York Regional Interconnect, which is looking to build a high voltage power line near the Delaware River downstate near the Pennsylvania border. NYRI’s line would cut through 44 miles and 2,000 properties in Chenango County, as well.